Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and “court philosopher” of the Kennedy administration who remained a proud liberal even as others dared not use the word, has died. He was 89.

Schlesinger was dining with family members in Manhattan on Wednesday when he suffered a heart attack, his son Stephen said.

Schlesinger was among the most prominent historians of his time, widely respected as learned and readable, with a panoramic vision of American culture and politics. He received a National Book Award for “Robert Kennedy and His Times” and a National Book Award and a Pulitzer for “A Thousand Days,” his memoir of President John Kennedy’s administration. He also won a Pulitzer, in 1946, for “The Age of Jackson,” his landmark chronicle of Andrew Jackson’s administration.

With his bow ties and horn-rimmed glasses, Schlesinger seemed the very image of a reserved, tweedy scholar. But he was an assured member of the so-called Eastern elite, friendly with everyone from Mary McCarthy to Katharine Graham and enough of a sport to swim fully clothed in the pool of then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

He was a longtime confidant of the Kennedys and a fellow Harvard man who served in President Kennedy’s administration. He often was criticized for idealizing the family, especially for not mentioning the president’s extramarital affairs.

“At no point in my experience did his preoccupation with women – apart from Caroline crawling around the Oval Office – interfere with his conduct of the public business,” Schlesinger later wrote.

In 1946, Schlesinger helped found Americans for Democratic Action, a leading organization of anti-communist liberals. Three years later, he published the influential “The Vital Center,” which advocated a liberal domestic policy and anti-communist foreign policy.

In the 1950s, Schlesinger became increasingly involved in politics, supporting Adlai Stevenson, the erudite Illinois governor and two-time loser to Dwight Eisenhower for the presidency. In 1960, the historian switched his loyalty to Kennedy, even as he acknowledged that Stevenson was a “much richer, more thoughtful, more creative person.”

Liberals were wary of Kennedy, but Schlesinger, tired of Stevenson’s dreamy detachment, was drawn to Kennedy’s “cool, measured, intelligent concern.” Over time, he came to embody Schlesinger’s ideal for a head of state: charismatic but not dogmatic; progressive yet practical; a realist, he once observed, disguised as a romantic.

Kennedy appointed Schles-inger as a special assistant, an unofficial “court philosopher” of symbolic, if not practical, power.

In later years, he criticized President George W. Bush for his doctrine of “preventive war,” saying “I think the whole notion of America as the world’s judge, jury and executioner is a tragically mistaken notion.”

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